Mesh Network Reliability?

‎01-20-201109:16 AM

We have several mesh networks deployed at our customer site and wanted to get a baseline feel of some of the issues we've been experiencing. In particular, it's the mesh points (constantly bouncing) that have the issues as they are purely wireless. We run AP124s with Laird Technologies' S24517PT directional Antennas. One location stays up for a max time of 7 days. Another location stays up 4-8 hours.

What frequency range is optimal? We originally ran these on 5 GHz (802.11a) and found that the mesh points kept bouncing at different locations. We decided to move these over to 2.4 GHz (802.11g) without much success. I would imagine 5 GHz is optimal due to known interference issues in the 2.4 GHz range.

Environmental variables? We've had the majority of these set up in places where there is direct line of site (between 100 - 250 ft). That seems to be the ideal setup. Are there recommendations in terms of what antennas to use? We only use Laird Technologies' S24517PT and are open to trying others.

Design? With all the connectivity issues experienced, we tried to limit the amount of mesh points. Our locations prevent us from running wires between buildings so we use a mesh network to connect buildings. On the mesh point end, we connected a LAN switch to the mesh point AP and then ran additional APs through that mesh portal and provisioned them as normal APs. Since this limits the amount of mesh points talking back to the mesh portal, we have adopted this model. Additionally, we put the mesh networks in its own VLAN to limit broadcast storms that brought another network down. Are there any good design guides or building mesh networks and take into consideration for loops?